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Cybernetic Divine
Cybernetic Divine is an EP recorded and released by stoner/sludge metal band Megaton on December 11th, 2013. Tracklisting All songs written by Megaton, except The Silver Key; written by Megaton and Rob Lantz. Background Following the release of the Age of Strife single, Megaton went through a major lineup change. Departure of previous drummer Dave Koziol brought in Mario Ibarra, previously of Creatures of Habit, Sinsoil and Nature Dicks. The band began rehearsing in the fall of 2013 with Ibarra, who suggested recording an EP to promote the new lineup. For this release no new songs were written, however Mario contributed significantly in revamping the arrangements of these songs. The album was recorded as a three piece, as guitarist Derrek Christians was studying abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia at the time. Recording and Mixing Using Steve Smith's recording setup, the band convened in his basement to record the EP. They decided the best course of action would be to record one of their practices and pick the best songs for release. The songs selected were Cybernetic Divine, Spiritual Madness and The Silver Key. For recording the band elected to use a primitive setup. They set up microphones around the drums, guitar and bass without any regards to isolation and played as they would for a normal practice. Later on a second rhythm guitar was added along with the live track. The bass guitar and vocals were rerecorded at a later date. For the recording process the band did some experimentation to make it stand out. The most notable being the addition of the dial-up modem sound at the beginning and end of the title track. This was a slight bit of humor on the band's part, being that song is about enslavement by modern machines but has an outdated sound that may not even be recognized by younger listeners. For the title track, Serena's vocals were layered from a few takes to give it a more robotic sound. For the chorus parts of The Silver Key, both Steve and Serena layered their voices in a chorus effect. For a few of the tracks they were ran through a chorus pedal meant for guitar. Mixing was once again headed by Doug Decker from Anytime Studios. Upon listening to the tracks, he told the members "it's like a completely different band!" Release The EP was released on Bandcamp.com on December 11th, 2013. In addition, self made copies of the EP were made and distributed by the band at shows. Some versions may include a random (and humorous) bonus track, depending on when or who burned the copy. Artwork The artwork was created by bassist Serena McLaughlin. In contrast to the previous release, which was a hand made painting, Cybernetic Divine's cover was done in Photoshop to give it a more digital theme. Originally the artwork was to feature digitized versions of the band members, but upon seeing the artwork by itself they decided to not use them. The physical artwork features a sleeve that, when folded out, reveals that the artwork extends from the front cover. Reviews The EP was reviewed by Neil Pretorius of The Metal Observer. Neil described the sound of the band as; "the aural equivalent of Bigfoot swinging a bag of hammers." ''Cybernetic Divine Review. The Metal Observer - August 14th, 2014 Personnel '''Megaton' *Steve Smith - Lead Vocals, Guitars, Recording Engineer *Serena McLaughlin - Lead Vocals, Bass, Artwork *Mario Ibarra - Drums, Samples *Derrek Christians - Guitar (credited, does not appear) Other *Doug Decker - Mixing External Links *Cybernetic Divine's Bandcamp *Facebook *Soundcloud *Official Site References Category:Megaton